Wellnews from Creators Syndicate

Beaming Babies for 07/09/2008

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

An infant's smile may gladden the heart, but it also apparently boosts the brain, too — at least in mothers.

Twenty-eight first-time mothers with 5-to 10-month-old infants were shown photos of babies (theirs and others) while lying in a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine, which measures brain activity based on blood flow. The photos showed babies with expressions that we ...

Updated: Wed Jul 09, 2008

Kidney Stones? Blame Them on Climate Change for 07/16/2008

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Add a rise in kidney stone disease to the list of predicted changes caused by global warming, say researchers at the University of Texas and Southwestern Medical Center.

"The prevalence of kidney stones is likely to increase by 30 percent or more in some areas," said Tom Brikowski, an associate professor of geosciences and lead author of the study.

Brikowski and colleagu ...

Updated: Wed Jul 16, 2008

Women are From Venus, Men are From the Planet Dumb for 07/23/2008

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

While guys may view a little flirtation with the opposite sex as harmless, women almost never do; a difference that prompts each gender to react very differently to temptation, say psychologists.

In a series of experiments, conducted by researchers at McGill University in Canada, psychologists discovered that men who meet a single, attractive woman tend to subsequently view their current ...

Updated: Wed Jul 23, 2008

Pack Your Gas Mask for 07/30/2008

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

If you're still making summer vacation plans, still looking for a place to rest mind, body and soul, here's a list of the top five places not to visit, courtesy of The Blacksmith Institute, an international think tank that identifies and monitors the most polluted sites on the planet:

1. Sumqayit, Azerbaijan. A city of 275,000 and once the Soviet Union's center of chemical production, Su ...

Updated: Wed Jul 30, 2008

Talk to Me, Doc for 08/06/2008

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

On average, Americans get 15 or so minutes of face time with their doctor per office visit. That may not seem like much time, and there's long been this general notion that medical care would be better if doctors didn't (or didn't need to) see so many patients in a day.

The notion, though, may not be true.

An updated review of five studies in the United Kingdom, published in the C ...

Updated: Wed Aug 06, 2008

A Rash of Problems for 08/13/2008

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Dermatologists are warning consumers that harmless-looking henna tattoos commonly sold at fairs, malls and vacation hot spots may contain a harmful chemical that makes them darker and longer lasting.

The chemical is para-phenylenediamine or PPD, which Dr. Sharon Jacob, an assistant clinical professor of pediatrics and dermatology at the University of California, San Diego, says has been ...

Updated: Wed Aug 13, 2008

In the Long Run for 08/20/2008

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

You can't outrun death, but apparently you can put some distance between it and you. A just-published 21-year study of older runners found that they lived longer, healthier lives than nonjogging peers.

Researchers at Stanford University tracked 538 members of a U.S. running club and 423 nonrunners, starting in 1984. They found that runners 50 and older had less heart disease and avoided ...

Updated: Wed Aug 20, 2008

Stop Horsing Around for 08/27/2008

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

It's prevailing parental wisdom that too much sugar makes kids hyperactive, inducing them to bounce off walls — perhaps literally — and run around like screaming, sleep-deprived banshees.

Most supporting evidence, of course, is anecdotal, but here's a bit of science that parents can employ next time a child cries for an extra candy bar. Weirdly enough, it's even more relevant ...

Updated: Wed Aug 27, 2008

Ear Today, Fat Tomorrow for 09/03/2008

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Parents of children with a history of moderate to severe middle ear infections probably won't want to hear this, but a new study suggests such children tend to become overweight later in life.

The study, by researchers at the University of Florida's Center for Smell and Taste, notes that chronic ear infections can damage the chorda tympani nerve, which passes through the middle ear and c ...

Updated: Wed Sep 03, 2008

Not Just Muscle-Bound Thumbs for 09/10/2008

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Maybe it's impossible to keep kids from playing video games. But that might not be as bad as you think. A new report in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine says active video games — the kind that involve lots of physical movement — burn a surprising amount of calories. And even sedentary video games burn more calories than a kid just plunked on a couch.

Accor ...

Updated: Wed Sep 10, 2008

Bad Vibrations for 09/17/2008

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Carotid artery stenosis is a condition in which the arteries' narrow blood flow is reduced or blocked, often resulting in a stroke. There are many known risk factors: smoking, high cholesterol, hypertension and obesity among them.

Add another: heavy snoring.

An Australian study, which involved 110 male and female volunteers sleeping overnight in a lab, looked at how the participan ...

Updated: Wed Sep 17, 2008

Aged Fatherhood may Genetically Boost Longevity for 09/24/2008

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Hey guys, how's this for an excuse: Older men chasing younger women contributes to human longevity and survival of the species.

Researchers at Stanford University and UC Santa Barbara say new studies suggest fatherhood by a small number of older men appears to postpone a date with death because natural selection fights life-shortening mutations until the species is finished reproducing.< ...

Updated: Wed Sep 24, 2008

Thin May Not be All It's Cracked Up to be for 10/01/2008

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

For men, weight gain and obesity are longtime, well-known villains, linked to all sorts of increased health risks from cardiovascular disease to joint failure.

But being thin may be problematic, too. A new Norwegian study suggests that men who have low weight in middle age and who reduce their weight as they age increase their chance of suffering osteoporosis and bone fractures.

& ...

Updated: Wed Oct 01, 2008

Know Pain, Know Gain for 10/08/2008

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Pain is more than a symptom of osteoarthritis; it's a damaging part of the disease itself, says a new study.

Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center say they've discovered that pain signals originating in arthritic joints, and the biochemical processing of those signals as they travel to the spinal cord and brain, appear to worsen and expand the disease.

"Un ...

Updated: Wed Oct 08, 2008

Memory Loss for 10/15/2008

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

If you find yourself increasingly forgetful or struggling to maintain concentration, there's good and bad news.

The good news: It may not be the first signs of dementia. The bad: Your brain may be shrinking.

In a Dutch study of 500 people ages 50 to 85 with no dementia, researchers found that 453 participants reported occasional memory or thinking problems, minor issues like strug ...

Updated: Wed Oct 15, 2008

Speaking in Tongues for 10/22/2008

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

There's a certain irony that one of the major factors in most speech impediments — the tongue — can't really speak for itself, until now.

French researchers have tested a dental device that, when placed in the mouth, records the minute details of tongue movement during speech, giving therapists a much better idea of what might be causing speech problems.

The denturelik ...

Updated: Wed Oct 22, 2008

Beer Taps Wine's Health Benefit for 10/29/2008

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Lately, there's been a lot of news about resveratrol, a chemical in red wines and grapes that appears to significantly reduce cancer and heart disease. Or at least it does in inebriated lab animals.

Beer, alas, can make no such claims. When it comes to resveratrol, suds are duds. But maybe not for much longer. A team of undergraduate students at Rice University has produced a beer that's ...

Updated: Wed Oct 29, 2008

Stressful Experience for 11/05/2008

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Everybody lives with stress. And everybody deals with it differently.

That appears to be broadly true for age groups, too. A University of Southern California study says stressed older adults alter their behavior more than younger adults under stress, particularly in situations involving risk.

Mara Mather of USC's Davis School of Gerontology and colleagues exposed two groups of vo ...

Updated: Wed Nov 05, 2008

People's Common Scents for 11/12/2008

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

You may be what you eat, but not how you smell.

Scientists at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia say new research suggests a person's underlying odor — our distinct individual aroma — remains intact and detectable even with major changes in diet.

“The findings using this animal model support the proposition that body odors provide a consistent 'odorprint ...

Updated: Wed Nov 12, 2008

Break the Fast, not the Scale for 11/19/2008

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The old adage about breakfast being the most important meal of the day has long been backed up by apparent scientific fact. Breakfast eaters, for example, tend to be leaner than folks who skip the first meal of the day.

But you may want to digest some new data. A study out of Queens College in New York City shows breakfast eaters average fewer calories consumed per day than those who ski ...

Updated: Wed Nov 19, 2008